National Snow & Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center

nasa-nsidcdaac-0105

Snow Melt Onset Over Arctic Sea Ice from SMMR and SSM/I-SSMIS Brightness Temperatures

This data set includes yearly snow melt onset dates over Arctic sea ice derived from brightness temperatures from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR), the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). The introduction of liquid water to snow results in a sharp increase in the emissivity and hence brightness temperature of the snowpack. Snow melt onset is defined as the point in time when microwave brightness temperatures increase sharply due to the presence of liquid water in the snowpack. Data span the years 1979 through 2012 and are in a polar stereographic grid at 25 km resolution. Flat binary, 1-byte integer files and GIF images are accessible via FTP. Several value-added products are also available. Value-added data sets include the following for each pixel: mean melt onset date; latest (maximum) melt onset date; earliest (minimum) melt onset date; range of melt onset dates (the difference between maximum and minimum -- an index of variability); and standard deviation of melt onset date (another index of variability). Graphical representations of value-added data are also available.

http://nsidc.org/data/NSIDC-0105

Identified by : NSIDC-0105

This dataset was released on April 11, 2014.

The time range for this dataset is January 01, 1979 to December 31, 2012.

The spatial range for this dataset is 30° to 90° latitude, and -180° to 180° longitude. map (center)

This dataset uses data from an instance of the special-sensor-microwave-imager instrument on the defense-meteorological-satellite-program-f-11 platform.
This dataset uses data from an instance of the special-sensor-microwave-imager instrument on the defense-meteorological-satellite-program-f-13 platform.
This dataset uses data from an instance of the special-sensor-microwave-imager instrument on the defense-meteorological-satellite-program-f-8 platform.
This dataset uses data from an instance of the special-sensor-microwave-imager-sounder instrument on the defense-meteorological-satellite-program-f-17 platform.
DOI : 10.5067/22NFZL42RMUO
Also known as :

• dataset oai:nsidc/NSIDC-0105 (nsidc lexicon)